Itongadol/AJN.- Former prime minister\’s casket lies in state outside Knesset in Jerusalem.
The casket of former prime minister Ariel Sharon lay in state Sunday outside the Knesset in Jerusalem for members of the public to pay their last respects.
President Shimon Peres laid a wreath on Sharon\’s coffin prior to the public procession. Sharon, Israel\’s eleventh prime minister died on Saturday after lying comatose for eight years after suffering a stroke.
Police expected thousands to arrive in the capital and asked the public to use public transportation. The state was providing a bus shuttle service between Teddy Stadium in the capital, and also from the Latrun interchange to the Knesset.
All scheduled committee meetings at the Knesset for Sunday and Monday were cancelled.
A memorial service was set to take place at the Knesset on Monday at 9:30 a.m. where members of Sharon\’s family, Peres, Prime Minister Binymain Netanyahu and Speaker of the Knesset Yuli Edelstein are expected to speak.
Current and former world leaders and senior officials are expected to come to Israel for the memorial service, including US Vice President Joseph Biden, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, former British prime minister Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Jiri Rusnok, Foreign Minister of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and other guests.
At the end of the Knesset ceremony on Monday a funeral procession and military convoy was scheduled to set out toward Sharon\’s Sycamore Ranch where he will be laid to rest next to his wife Lily on the nearby Anemone Hill at 2:00 p.m. in a military burial.